Stranded vehicles littered roadsides Monday as several inches of snow and sleet coated Atlanta and other parts of the South, freezing the morning commute in many areas and canceling thousands of flights at the world's busiest airport.

A police officer examines the wreckage of a car after it slid into a power pole during a snowstorm in Charlotte on Monday.

By Larry Copeland, Charisse Jones and Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

ATLANTA  The winter storm that crippled air and highway travel in much of the Southeast Monday will deliver another round of snow over the next couple of days in the northern Mid-Atlantic and New England.

Parts of New England could see blizzard conditions and snow totals approaching 2 feet.

New York City could get a foot barely two weeks after a blizzard buried the city and left some streets unplowed for days.

Experts blame the mess on two large-scale climate patterns in the atmosphere over the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans that strongly affect winter weather, according to the Climate Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Md.

The Southeast storm walloped the U.S. air transportation system: FlightAware, a flight tracking service, said 2,279 flights were canceled Monday, most in and out of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson, the nation's busiest airport. Other airports, including Charlotte Douglas, Washington's Reagan National, Orlando International and Philadelphia International also saw flights grounded because of bad weather.

At least nine people were killed in weather-related traffic accidents, the Associated Press reports.

AirTran's cancellation of 376 flights in and out of Atlanta affected "tens of thousands" of passengers, spokesman Chris White said. The airline planned to resume flights Tuesday morning but on a pared-down schedule, which could expand depending on weather and airport conditions.

Delta Air Lines canceled more than 1,950 flights, roughly 35% of all trips planned Monday. The disruptions will continue, with more than 1,400 cancellations planned and a smaller flight schedule in Atlanta through Tuesday afternoon. The airline expects more cancellations Wednesday.

Airlines allowed passengers headed to storm-affected cities to switch their flights without paying a penalty. Accommodating stranded passengers may take some time, but "it's not going to be nearly as bad as post-Christmas, because loads are lighter and it's not as busy a travel week as the week after Christmas," said FlightAware Vice President Mark Duell, referring to the Christmas weekend storm that left some stranded passengers waiting several days for an available seat.

AirTran and others prepared for the storm's arrival in the Northeast. "We have not yet pre-canceled flights into or out of the Northeast but may need to as conditions deteriorate," White said.

In Georgia, which got up to 8 inches of snow in some places and saw roads and interstates snarled by wrecks, officials predicted a treacherous morning rush hour Tuesday, especially in Atlanta. "Right now, the snow that fell has turned into slush," said David Spear, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Transportation. "That's going to refreeze … and it's going to be extremely dangerous. Snow's difficult enough to drive in; ice is almost impossible."

In North Carolina, where 8-14 inches of snow fell across much of the state and troopers answered more than 1,100 calls for service, Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue said the state National Guard was on standby.

Some of the highest snow totals were in Cashiers, N.C. (12.5 inches), Pulaski, Tenn. (11), and Baldwyn, Miss. (10). Those totals hammered towns with limited capabilities for snow removal. Spear said snow and icy roads affected up to 75% of Georgia and decimated the state's snow removal budget. "This year, we set aside $10 million to deal with winter weather," he said. "After this event, we expect we will have spent $5 million. What's really troubling is that we're really just heading into winter and this is our third snow or ice event."

In Huntsville, Ala., the 6-12 inches of snow was the third-highest in the city's history, said Jennifer Ardis, Republican Gov. Bob Riley's deputy spokesperson.

Near Huntsville, in the city of Falkville, Susie and Chris Agnew, like thousands of their neighbors across the Southeast, spent the day at home. Susie Agnew, 57, said they laid in supplies before the storm hit and were enjoying the "beautiful" scenery with their dogs, horses and cats.

"We've got quite a snowstorm for this part of the country," she said. "We've lived here for 30 years, and this is one of the big ones. We're hunkered down in the house. It's very beautiful. It's exciting, but if we were sick and had to get to the hospital, it wouldn't be, because I don't think anybody's going anywhere."

Jones reported from New York and Rice from McLean, Va. Contributing: Jon Ostendorff of the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times

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